FordPass new terms

[PrimeRisk]

Oh man, that brings back ugly memories from car deals of the past before I learned to say no and get up and walk out.

Much better nowadays most places. Still some slime out there though. Thankfully I haven't encountered it in many years.

The first time I bought a house, I was a first year law student - I read every damn page of every document, lol. Took a while longer than the agents had hoped, but in the end, all was correct.

The 29.99 percent was what used to be called "usry." Anything above that was unconscionable.
Now many states allow a contract to override their max "usury" rate.

Your story is very timely, unfortunately...

Just today, the new administration decided to shut down all work at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau...so it will be back to "laissez faire" economics and "caveat emptor" - cut throat capitalism in coming to a country near you.

30% APR used to be the law where the rate became usuary in Colorado back when I had this experience in the early 90s. That's child's play compared to the law today, it's 45%!

https://www.shouselaw.com/co/defense/laws/usury/

Shutting down the CFPB is terrible. Businesses are going to start getting away with murder because the know that now the only way to get them to play legit is to take them to court, but most companies have mandatory mediation, so that's a complete shit-show. Even if you opt-out of mediation, most people don't have the stomach or the pocket book to go up against the big-business lawyers. People are going to get f*cked over by the millions, mark my words

I'm have been recipient of the help from the CFPB when I sold a house in 2023. The thieves at Lakeview Mortgage serviced LoanCare Systems were down due to their 3rd hack in as many years and while they received the wire on the closing date, they didn't actually apply the payment to my account for 4 weeks. That equated to over $1000 in interest. At closing they knew there was an issue with the LoanCare systems, so the title company withheld an extra month of interest on LoanCare's directive. I was livid and protested as this was not in the 3-day settlement statement (they literally dropped this gem on me at the closing). I contacted the mortgage company multiple times during that month to get a status and all they would say is that yes, they got the payoff, but no, they couldn't settle the account.

I finally got an e-mail saying that their systems were back up and sure enough, my loan was closed and I had a credit balance of about $66. Well that was way wrong as the settlement date was wrong and apparently were intending on keeping $1000+ in unearned interest. I called and they said they understood and would open a ticket, but it would take 7-10 business days. After waiting another 2 weeks I got nothing except the $66 and change in the mail as a refund and a copy of my lien release.

I called again and they said my account was closed, the ticket I had opened, was closed and my refund had been issued. I asked if there was a second check and they said no, all I was owed was what I had received as my loan had only closed 2 weeks ago. I was less than impressed and went through the dates and the CSR even confirmed that they had the money for nearly a month before it was applied. I demanded to speak to someone that understood that they couldn't just keep that money. The supervisor I got was patronizing and while she admitted it was a mistake, she appeared to care less.

She opened a new ticket and gave me the number. I asked when I would expect it to be resolved. She snapped back that they would get to it when they got to it. She continued that if I didn't like it I could file a complaint. I said I didn't like it, so she started giving me an address where I could send a letter to the company. I stopped her and said oh no, if this is the attitude and no commitment on how long it will take, I'll be taking the complaint to the CFPB and our State AG's Financial Fraud division. She said good luck and since I was filing complaints, she'd just cancel the ticket. I told her it was at her own risk, but whatever she wanted to do.

So I did. I filed complaints with the CFPB and the Colorado AG. I had a response from LoanCare in 48 hours. Unfortunately for the supervisor, she had already given me the ticket number and sure, she cancelled it, but that didn't erase it from their system and they had apparently listened to the recording of that call. The person that contacted me was very apologetic about the situation, the supervisor's poor customer service, and had already calculated what was due back to me with precision. She asked if I'd like a check overnighted or if I'd like a wire with fees waived. I said the check would be fine.

Two weeks later an investigator from the AG's office contacted me and I told them the issue was now resolved, but the investigator said the AG was not done with them. Even though the mortgage company had resolved the issue due to the push from the CFPB, the AG had a hard-on for mortgage companies pulling this type of crap and holding on to people's money for long periods of time with no reason. I was happy to oblige the investigator with all of my evidence.

With the CFPB gone, we can only hope that our state AG's office will have the manpower to help the citizens. If not, there will be no place to turn.

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[PrimeRisk]

And these same people are in business in so many dealers every day. In many cases now protected by laws that the dealer associations have bought from their senators and representatives.

That is true. These days I pay cash for my cars unless there is a special financing deal like Ford offering a $1000 discount to finance with them at 0% for 60 months. Not sure how that makes any sense, but I'll take their free financing and put the $60k in T-Bill earning 4.5% and drop $1k/month out to pay Ford. (Yes, I could make more in other investments, but considering what's happening to the market, I'm ok with the simple arbitrage win)

 

[chl]

30% APR used to be the law where the rate became usuary in Colorado back when I had this experience in the early 90s. That's child's play compared to the law today, it's 45%!

https://www.shouselaw.com/co/defense/laws/usury/

Shutting down the CFPB is terrible. Businesses are going to start getting away with murder because the know that now the only way to get them to play legit is to take them to court, but most companies have mandatory mediation, so that's a complete shit-show. Even if you opt-out of mediation, most people don't have the stomach or the pocket book to go up against the big-business lawyers. People are going to get f*cked over by the millions, mark my words

I'm have been recipient of the help from the CFPB when I sold a house in 2023. The thieves at Lakeview Mortgage serviced LoanCare Systems were down due to their 3rd hack in as many years and while they received the wire on the closing date, they didn't actually apply the payment to my account for 4 weeks. That equated to over $1000 in interest. At closing they knew there was an issue with the LoanCare systems, so the title company withheld an extra month of interest on LoanCare's directive. I was livid and protested as this was not in the 3-day settlement statement (they literally dropped this gem on me at the closing). I contacted the mortgage company multiple times during that month to get a status and all they would say is that yes, they got the payoff, but no, they couldn't settle the account.

I finally got an e-mail saying that their systems were back up and sure enough, my loan was closed and I had a credit balance of about $66. Well that was way wrong as the settlement date was wrong and apparently were intending on keeping $1000+ in unearned interest. I called and they said they understood and would open a ticket, but it would take 7-10 business days. After waiting another 2 weeks I got nothing except the $66 and change in the mail as a refund and a copy of my lien release.

I called again and they said my account was closed, the ticket I had opened, was closed and my refund had been issued. I asked if there was a second check and they said no, all I was owed was what I had received as my loan had only closed 2 weeks ago. I was less than impressed and went through the dates and the CSR even confirmed that they had the money for nearly a month before it was applied. I demanded to speak to someone that understood that they couldn't just keep that money. The supervisor I got was patronizing and while she admitted it was a mistake, she appeared to care less.

She opened a new ticket and gave me the number. I asked when I would expect it to be resolved. She snapped back that they would get to it when they got to it. She continued that if I didn't like it I could file a complaint. I said I didn't like it, so she started giving me an address where I could send a letter to the company. I stopped her and said oh no, if this is the attitude and no commitment on how long it will take, I'll be taking the complaint to the CFPB and our State AG's Financial Fraud division. She said good luck and since I was filing complaints, she'd just cancel the ticket. I told her it was at her own risk, but whatever she wanted to do.

So I did. I filed complaints with the CFPB and the Colorado AG. I had a response from LoanCare in 48 hours. Unfortunately for the supervisor, she had already given me the ticket number and sure, she cancelled it, but that didn't erase it from their system and they had apparently listened to the recording of that call. The person that contacted me was very apologetic about the situation, the supervisor's poor customer service, and had already calculated what was due back to me with precision. She asked if I'd like a check overnighted or if I'd like a wire with fees waived. I said the check would be fine.

Two weeks later an investigator from the AG's office contacted me and I told them the issue was now resolved, but the investigator said the AG was not done with them. Even though the mortgage company had resolved the issue due to the push from the CFPB, the AG had a hard-on for mortgage companies pulling this type of crap and holding on to people's money for long periods of time with no reason. I was happy to oblige the investigator with all of my evidence.

With the CFPB gone, we can only hope that our state AG's office will have the manpower to help the citizens. If not, there will be no place to turn.

Yes, it's back to the bad ole days or hoping your AG or state consumer agency will help out.
During the crazy days that led to the financial breakdown, one of the infamous mortgage brokers had a hack using my ID, SSN etc. which my insurance agents had stored on a server in an unencrypted file that got access through NAPSTER (the default was full access to everything) that some secretary had put on the office computer...the hack allowed them to apply for a mortgage and then pull my credit bureaus, then boom, all my CC companies got calls from someone in Mexico claiming to be me and needing emergency cash wired to Tijuana Western Union, at $1,000 a pop! They actually got $1,000 from my BANK ACCT by calling the customer service number on a Sunday!

I check my accounts daily and I saw the cash withdrawl pending and immediately called my CC companies - some had already sent the guy the cash. BTW, I caught the fraud happening BEFORE getting any notification from my credit monitoring service!

I did get a call from AmEx from their fraud dept. they had the guy on the other line, so then they asked him all kinds of personal questions, and he knew the answer to all of them - ain't the internet great?

The fraudster got a whole list of other attorneys, including Justice Breyer of the SupCt and it got written up by Krebs in the Washington Post in 2008 a year later: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/08/AR2008070802997.html?hpid=topnews

What a pain in the butt to get the credit bureaus to remove all the inquiries the fraudsters made!

And then someone filed a tax return in my name to boot! This was before the IRS had PINs etc.

Had to file a police report to get a fraud alert, and the local police were swamped - I had to call my county rep. to get the police to give me a police report, weeks later!

OMG, if we go back to that kind of mess...

 

[chl]

Yes, it's back to the bad ole days or hoping your AG or state consumer agency will help out.
During the crazy days that led to the financial breakdown, one of the infamous mortgage brokers had a hack using my ID, SSN etc. which my insurance agents had stored on a server in an unencrypted file that got access through NAPSTER (the default was full access to everything) that some secretary had put on the office computer...the hack allowed them to apply for a mortgage and then pull my credit bureaus, then boom, all my CC companies got calls from someone in Mexico claiming to be me and needing emergency cash wired to Tijuana Western Union, at $1,000 a pop! They actually got $1,000 from my BANK ACCT by calling the customer service number on a Sunday!

I check my accounts daily and I saw the cash withdrawl pending and immediately called my CC companies - some had already sent the guy the cash. BTW, I caught the fraud happening BEFORE getting any notification from my credit monitoring service!

I did get a call from AmEx from their fraud dept. they had the guy on the other line, so then they asked him all kinds of personal questions, and he knew the answer to all of them - ain't the internet great?

The fraudster got a whole list of other attorneys, including Justice Breyer of the SupCt and it got written up by Krebs in the Washington Post in 2008 a year later: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/08/AR2008070802997.html?hpid=topnews

What a pain in the butt to get the credit bureaus to remove all the inquiries the fraudsters made!

And then someone filed a tax return in my name to boot! This was before the IRS had PINs etc.

Had to file a police report to get a fraud alert, and the local police were swamped - I had to call my county rep. to get the police to give me a police report, weeks later!

OMG, if we go back to that kind of mess...

PS: I got all my money back from the banks and CCs, he only got $3,000 from me, the other attys were probably hit much worse.

 

[PrimeRisk]

Yes, it's back to the bad ole days or hoping your AG or state consumer agency will help out.
During the crazy days that led to the financial breakdown, one of the infamous mortgage brokers had a hack using my ID, SSN etc. which my insurance agents had stored on a server in an unencrypted file that got access through NAPSTER (the default was full access to everything) that some secretary had put on the office computer...the hack allowed them to apply for a mortgage and then pull my credit bureaus, then boom, all my CC companies got calls from someone in Mexico claiming to be me and needing emergency cash wired to Tijuana Western Union, at $1,000 a pop! They actually got $1,000 from my BANK ACCT by calling the customer service number on a Sunday!

I check my accounts daily and I saw the cash withdrawl pending and immediately called my CC companies - some had already sent the guy the cash. BTW, I caught the fraud happening BEFORE getting any notification from my credit monitoring service!

I did get a call from AmEx from their fraud dept. they had the guy on the other line, so then they asked him all kinds of personal questions, and he knew the answer to all of them - ain't the internet great?

The fraudster got a whole list of other attorneys, including Justice Breyer of the SupCt and it got written up by Krebs in the Washington Post in 2008 a year later: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/08/AR2008070802997.html?hpid=topnews

What a pain in the butt to get the credit bureaus to remove all the inquiries the fraudsters made!

And then someone filed a tax return in my name to boot! This was before the IRS had PINs etc.

Had to file a police report to get a fraud alert, and the local police were swamped - I had to call my county rep. to get the police to give me a police report, weeks later!

OMG, if we go back to that kind of mess...

Holy cow, sorry about your identity theft. That's one of the worst I have heard about.

We are at risk of back sliding on some of this. I am hopeful that we won't see regression on the data security posture of companies even if the current administration neuters the laws holding the accountable. It is still good business practice not to lose your customer's information and money.

A few of the security measures I have is the use of duress words on financial accounts and a campaign of disinformation. My primary financial institution always requires a number of verification questions including the ever so popular "Mother's Maiden Name". Anyone with $10 can get into ancestry.com and find that information. If you give my actual mother's maiden name to my bank, it's the duress code to shut it all down. Not all financial institutions use this approach, but you can ask if yours does. I deal with real estate and it is not uncommon for me to call in to verify wiring 6-figure sums and once it is sent, it is gone, so I use every security tool offered from my institutions. I won't transact with you if you don't have 2FA and if I'm going to place significant amounts of money in your institution, you better have hard token or better security approaches. I've been rather impressed with Vanguard's implementation of voice-print in combination with secondary trade PINs and hard-token 2FA. It can be a bit of a PITA to verify in to do trades, but the protection of your assets is immeasurable.

Disinformation is the process of explicitly not setting up security and reference information that is truthful. The downside is you have to remember your lies or you end up locked out yourself.

Also, for the love of all that is sane, stop giving real information to websites that do not need to have it. So many of them want your DOB and won't let you sign-up if you don't. So give them one, just not yours. Many businesses ask you for your SSN even though they have no reason to have it. Even with service companies, say your utility, that have an interest in being able to track you down IF you don't pay, there are commonly other ways around this. My utility company always want to verify my SSN when opening a new account (we rent properties) even when I provide my company's TIN, so when I purchase a new one they always demand it in addition. I decline and point to the other dozen plus accounts that I have and get a supervisor to waive the need to run a soft credit check. Even with new utility companies, I'll offer up a deposit rather than allowing them to run a credit check. I'd rather have them sit on a few hundred dollars for 6 months or a year than risk them losing my information. If they ask why I don't trust them, I'll simply reference their last data breach. I haven't run across a utility yet that doesn't have one on record.

 

[evowner]

We have our credit frozen at all of the credit bureaus. It can be a bit of a pain when you want to use it, but I feel we are pretty well protected. There is also another type of credit reporting that is tied to utilities that you can freeze too, preventing people from opening utility accounts in your name.

We learned about the utilities agency when someone opened an account in my wife's name at Verizon in NYC, It was a land line service. We live in Ohio. It took several months to get it straitened out. Finally we just told them we were contacting the US Consumer Protection Bureau. A week later it was all resolved. Even the ding at the credit bureau.

 

[chl]

Yes, the thing is, my SSN is already out there on the dark web, the cow is out of the bag because the barn door was open, or something like that. So it's too late to worry about a breach. I look at my credit report frequently for new accounts or other sketchy things.

I have frozen my credit bureaus, I only take the freeze off when I need to apply for credit. It is sooo much easier now to put a freeze on or take it off, or get fraudulent inquiries removed then it was back in 2007, you had to go through a lot of hoops, and I ended up having to threaten to sue in writing on my law firm letter head under the Fair Credit Act (or whatever it was called back then) if they did not comply. They finally did.

Who knew they considered our credit information their property? They would sell it willy nilly and make a lot of money off it, so it was hard to get them to give up that golden egg laying goose.

Yes I had not set up any security words at some of my CCs so they defaulted to MMN - how stupid was that!? Really pissed me off. I totally disabled phone call access after that, and moved my bank account to another institution.

IRS pin numbers didn't exist back then.

Really it could have been worse if I hadn't been vigilant about watching my accounts.

The worst thing that happened was my bank froze my checking account and didn't clear checks I had already written that I informed them about and one of them was my dues to the Virginia Bar! I found out when I got a letter from the bar that my check had been dishonored! I had to write a letter to the bar explaining the whole f-ing mess. That was why I changed banks - the last straw. The bank did cover the fees involved with the bounced check, but once bitten...

Knock on wood!

Yes Verizon is a pain in the rear to deal with on any billing matter at all. They used to have a phone tree that after several branches disconnects you!? WTF!

And they used to hire passive aggressive customer service people it seemed. Now they are overseas somewhere.

Just wait until they are all AI bots...running on the HAL 9000!

 

[Newton]

* Audio/Visual Data: Images from forward, interior and rear-facing cameras, and voice commands when the voice recognition system is active.

So how long before car companies monetize the interior camera feeds? ”You won’t believe the crazy stuff that people do inside of their truck, #7 is a real shocker!”

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